Translation in Folkloristics

Abstract

Lee Haring is Professor Emeritus of English at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. Drawing on his current research in the folktales of the islands of the Indian Ocean, he will propose that the study of oral traditions take in emerging ideas from translation studies. Translation inscribes the values and shapes the canon of literature; translation is itself a discourse. Folkloristics is equally a discourse, which inscribes cultural values by selecting and translating certain texts. Translation and folklore both cling to presence and immediacy. Because some concepts in translation studies correspond to concepts familiar to students of oral tradition, the two disciplines can afford to open up to each other.